You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.1
ATTRIBUTION:
Reflections on the Revolution in France. Vol. iii. p. 277.
Note 1. Quid velit et possit rerum concordia discors (What the discordant harmony of circumstances would and could effect).—Horace: Epistle i. 12, 19.
Mr. Breen, in his “Modern English Literature,” says: “This remarkable thought Alison the historian has turned to good account; it occurs so often in his disquisitions that he seems to have made it the staple of all wisdom and the basis of every truth.” [back]
